Vehicle-wheel.



` SOHN, a citizen of the United States, re-y To all whom it may concern:

Be .it-known that I, LIONEL M. WoLFrsiding at N 0. 220,WestOne Hundred land Seventh street, in t hel city of New York,

county and `State of New York, yhave in `vented new anduseful Improvements .Vehicle-Wheels, of which the following is a.

specification.

. My inventionrelateszto vehicle wheels'foff the type-inwhich the rim ortreadportion the wheel travels. y

In the manufacture of. wheels of the kindv g above. referred to,fof which the pneumatic- `tired'vvheel is a type,.man attempts have been made ,to devise a' su stitute for the 'is provided withk resilient devices to yield tok road surfaceupon `which f inequalities in4 the pneumatic tire' Which shall preserve to a reasonable degree the resiliency of the pneu-f matic tire While avoiding its liability to puncture and wear.- All such devices, so far as the inventor is informed, have heretofore proved `uiipracticalby reason of their Weight, complication, and expense, and4 of the serious deficiency in resiliency due to theV Weight of their moving parts or the friction in t eir joints.

' The object .of the ypresent invention vis to 'produce' a resilient vehicle Wheel which .shall serve as an efficient and economical substitute .for the pneumatic-tired wheel, and which shall avoid the defects Aof the prior devices- .before alluded to.

To attain the abovenientioned object, I apply to therim. or felly of' a wheel, of any ordinary or suitable construction,- yielding means of novel construction which take the place of the pneumatic tireand its rim. In

my construction I use, in common with some devices of the prior art, a plurality of treadplates of metal or other nonresilient in aterial, together with resilient means for supporting the tread plates. In my invention,

however, the tread-plates are of ya fnovel fornihand are guided andrcontrolled in their T movements 1n a novel manner, so that I am enabled to use tread-plates `of comparatively 50 lightweight. My construction as a whole is 'light and inexpensive, since all of its parts mayfbe. made of sheet metal, with tlieexception of the resilient-.inealis. AThe latter is preferably in the forif a pneumatic cushion or air tube, and when such a device is used, it is completely protected from injury,

Specification of LettersPaten-t. 1 Patented Application filed January 30, 1909. Seria1 2 No.475,113. I

VEHICLE-WHEEL.

oct. 26,1909.

sincefit is not only shielded from puncture andl froml contact with the road surface but is also entirely relieved, by the mechanical parts vof 'the constructiornfrom lateral or `peripheral strains, vsuch as are encountered .by the ordinary pneumatic tire. preferred embod' ent ofmy' in ven'-l i lustratedin the accompanying drawings, in'vvhi'ch--f i. a C 1 Figure jljis 'a side elevation partlyin vsec-y tion', of a portion ofa wheel towhichthe c- The tion is present invention is"` applied. FigLQis a ytransverse section on anenlarged scaleigt on to the line in Fig. vl, looking from le right. F ig. 3 is a side elevation ofa treadplate modified'by the addition ofja resilient tread block. 1 Fig. iis a sideelevation of one ofthe joint-plates. a c

In the illustrated embodiment oflmy in vention, .the tread-surface of the wheelis formed by a plurality'of U-shaped treador` other hard and tough metal. In order tov yield to inequalities in the road surface, the tread-platesare arranged to be independ-- ently movable in a radial direction, and tov this end they., are loosely mounted with their parallel members fitting closely, 'but not plates 1, which are' preferably'made of steel tightly, between two annular sidefplates 2,

Valso preferably of sheet metal,y which are secured. removably, by bolts 3,.to the sides .l

of the felly or, rim4 of the Wheel.

c The radial movements ofv the tread-plates i whichare riveted to the inner surfaces of the side-plates 2.

, are guided and limited by guide-lugs. 5, 5

9'0' These lugs engage recesses 6 in the lateral edges ofthejtreadplates, and the outward movement ofthe i tread-plates is limited by the shoulders 7 at the inner ends of the recesses, when'these. shoulders abut against the lugs 5 in the nor-` v .mal outward position ofthe tread-plates.

The recesses are suiliciently longer 'than the lugs,'however, to permit the tread-plates to yield and slide toward Vthe center ofl the wheel'when inequalities in the road surface v are encountered.

Within they tread-plates,.and closing the joints therebetween, are -U-shaped `]oint plates 8, also preferably of sheet-steel. The

joint-plates iit closely ,withinthe treadplates, so as to exclude grit, and they are arf ranged to 'alternate or break joints with the tread-plates. They are retained in such position by means of outward projections or contiguous tread-plates. 'be formed, as illustrated in the drawings, by vstriking up the sheetmetal in suitable dies.

lugsl 9 which engage the openings between These lugs 9 may form in the illustrated embodiment of my i; The inner margins of these guard plates arel v curved-to avoid-sharp bends in the air tube l 25 f -joint-plates an outer'shoe- 13, which eX- is not essential, however,

in connection` with rubber.

To prevent splitting of the fellyor rimv invention, of a pneumatic cushion comprising an vannular air tube l1, which maybe an ordinary inner ory air tube such as is used .penurnatlc 4tlre's, and whlch vmay be inflated 1n the usual manner'.

The air tube is protected yfrom contact with the moving plates by means oftwoan'nular guard plates l2 which v'are placed loosely within the joint plates, as shown in Fig. 2.

in the angles between the waard-platesk and the riin. The airtube is' irther protected from contact with the 'tread-plates and the tends inwardly'at the sides, as shown in Fig. 2 so as to cover the joints between the jointplates and the guard plates. The shoe 13 is made of suitable ilegibley material such .as

felt, or a combination of textile material and 4c, which is usually of wood, a metal band l0 is shrunk or forced upon it between the sideplates. g .j

In assembling `and dis-assembling. the wheel, the bolts 3 are remove l and the sideplates are moved to engage or disengage the in the treadlocked and unremovabl. In assembling the as graphite, is inserted between the movable parts. This since theme21-ring surfaces are all s o large, and vthe ranges of movement so small, that little wear and friction can occur.

.It is also relieved from all l It will be obvious that the pneumatic cushlon 1s' absolutely protected from punc- 'tures or cuts by the inclosingl metal armor.

ripheralstrains since the tread plates are rigidly confined to movement in radial directions'and the air tube participates only in such radial movement. v

Owing to 'the lightness and freedom of movement of the tread-plates andthe'joint plates, the former may be utilized to constitute the tread surface which engages the teral and peroad, and such an arrangement is shown-in Figs.` l and 2. In some cases, howeveig'as', 65

for example, in runningover streets pavedl with stones, ity may be l'desirable to use a tread surface of resilient material. .In such al casev tread-blocks of rubber `or other yielding material may be secured to the tread- 7o.v y

H my invention, `in its broadest'aspectsisnot limited to the use of such a'device, but in v l some cases springs of any ordinary or suitable form may be a satisfactory.' substitute.l y v lIn general, it'would be 'apparent that varif us modifications may be made inthe illustrated embodiment'of my .invention withiny the nature of the invention and the scope' ot' "85' the following claims. 1

Iclaim: f.. v f.

- l. A vehicle wheel having, incombination, l a rim provided with two removable annular y side plates, a plurality of U-shaped treadplates with their parallelmember's arranged. to slide radially between theiside-plates, guide lugs fixed on the inner surfaces' of the y side-plates and engaging the tread-plates to direct' and limit their radial movement,'U 95 j shaped joint-plates with their outer surfaces fitting closely against the inner surfaces of the tread-plates and having outward projecf tions engaging the openings between ad- 4 jacent tread-plates, two annular guard-'plates 100 located within the joint-plates, and a pneumatic cushion inclosed within the jointplatesand between the guard plates.

2. A. vehicle wheel having,.in' combination,

a rim provided with. two side plates constil.

tuting an annularchannel closed' at the bot. tom', a plurality of U-shaped tread-plates of sheet metal arranged to slide within the y channel, the edges of the tread-plates having recesses terminating at their inner ends in shoulders, guide lugs secured to rthe inner j surfaces'of'the side-plates at the juncturesv between the tread-plates, each guide lugengaging said recesses in two adjacent-treadplates and operating, by engagement withll saidvshoulders, to limit the outwardjmovement of the tread-plates, and U-shapcd joint plates of 'sheet metal arranged .within the tread-plates and having outward projections engaging the spaces between the tread portions of adjacent tread-plates.y j

i i' LIONEL M. IWOLFFSOHN.

In thejpresenceof* CLARENCE G. Gamin-rn, FLORENCE B. Roy. 

